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Keeping the ball down

CADadCADad5,000+ posts
CASon's JV team is playing summerball against freshman teams and it hasn't been very good for his pitching. Today he threw a couple innings. He's a 15yo rising junior. The first inning went pretty well. He started throwing 78-79 with good movement and was up to 80-81 consistently after a batter or so. He k'ed the first couple hitters, then walked the third hitter starting to get up in the zone a bit after missing with a 2-2 curve. The 4th hitter popped up weakly over first and the 1st baseman made a nice play to snag it.

The next inning he warmed up and it was obvious he didn't have the same control. He missed on a first pitch curve and went 3-2 then walked the hitter with a pitch up. He got the next hitter on a botched bunt attempt and then walked the next hitter, up in the zone again. He got behind the next hitter, a lefty and kept throwing it outside and up in the zone. The kid finally poked a blooper to left for a single driving in a run. The next hitter flied out and he K'ed the final hitter finally getting back down in the zone. His velocity dropped a couple mph in the second inning throwing mostly 78-79 throughout with only one at 80. He said his arm was tired but not sore after the two innings. In his previous outings 2 innings would have resulted in some shoulder soreness.

How do you get a pitcher to keep the ball down when they know they are facing weak hitters that they can throw the ball by? He hasn't had a chance to build up his arm endurance and he typically starts leaving the ball up in the zone in his second inning of work. More often than not he can get away with it against this weak competition, but it just isn't a good way to pitch.
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CADadCADad5,000+ posts
Southern1,
The leaving the ball up is the typical releasing a bit early when tired. Pitchers just have to focus more in that situation. He's not a max effort guy at all, so he's not overthrowing. He typically pitches at 3 to 4 mph below his max velocity, although with him recovering from injury we haven't tried to see what his max velocity is for quite a while. Once school is out and we can get him on a fairly regular throwing schedule we'll get his arm conditioned and then we'll start building arm strength and we'll see where he is from a max velocity standpoint then.

I'm looking for ideas on how to motivate him to focus on keeping the ball down rather than any mechanical fixes, although I am going to work with him on keeping his glove hand outstretched a bit longer to keep him closed longer which should help a bit. I'm also going to try to get him to stride just a bit longer which will probably tend to bring the ball up a bit for a while but should add 1 or 2 mph. Those were things that USC's pitching coach wanted him to work on. Eventually, we also want him to start throwing a 2 seamer so he gets even more movement than he already does.
Last edited by CADad
C Coachric1,000+ posts
Hey CaDad. Here's one motivation that may work. 1st, ask him his favorite pitch to hit. Is it knee high or just below, or just above? Probably not and most hitters wouldn't pick that location for a favorite pitch. As the player moves up in level, he will notice hitters who will kill the thigh high and above pitch. Most hitters will not have great success in the bottom of the strike zone. Take out the tee and have him find his favorite location to hit, then drop the tee as low as it will go, or set a ball on something knee high that he can hit off of. Have him take some reps too see what he's doing mechanically as a hitter and what type of contact he's making. This should only take a few minutes, but it could help him understand how working the bottom of the zone, and doing it early, may establish the zone for him and trouble most hitters. That location generally induces lots of ground balls. This is by no means a tell all, but it can help mentally. You should also involve the catcher and have him understand the importance of targeting at his kee caps or lower, unless a high pitch is called. This has assisted my pitchers over time, maybe somebody has something else to offer.
C cutter1100+ posts
Just a comment - and dont take offense to this but it appears you have a gun on him (or someone does) measuring his speed on every pitch.

Try telling him to get out in front and follow thru like they say below one game - and not talk about velocity.

Typically the velocity will be there, and he will focus on location rather than throwing hard. The velocity will come if not already there.

Again - not being critical, you must mention MPH alot

tks
CADadCADad5,000+ posts
Nope. He's not a max effort guy at all. I figure he's throwing 3 to 4 mph less than his max velocity. He's used to it and doesn't throw for the gun. Had the gun on him today and he never got more than two balls on a hitter over 3 innings. He got up in the zone a couple times but generally stayed focused on keeping it down so the pitches up were effective. The couple times he got behind on righties he just went in on the hands. Unfortunately, given the level of the competition this was little more than a bullpen with simulated hitters and probably nowhere near as productive.

He will have to increase his velocity to move up and he'll have to build his arm strength to do it. The only way to do that is to practice throwing hard, either in a pen or through long toss. That's something we work on in pens but he's been throwing in too many games to safely do that so we haven't done anything to work on building arm strength since he started pitching again.

Although I believe it is important for pitchers to do most of their pitching at the velocity where they have their best command, typically 3 to 4 mph below their max velocity, they aren't going to improve their velocity doing that. In order to improve their velocity they need to throw at or near their max velocity at times. They still need to pitch 3 to 4 mph below their max velocity but it works better to be throwing 3 to 4 mph below a max velocity of 90 mph than 3 to 4 mph below a max velocity of 83 mph.
Last edited by CADad

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